


What I Really Am

by asofthesea



Series: Just When You Thought You Had it All Figured Out [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bisexual Male Character, Bisexual Peter Parker, Coming Out, Crying, Flash Thompson Bullies Peter Parker, Gen, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Hurt Peter Parker, Internalized Homophobia, Mentioned Flash Thompson, One Shot, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Precious Peter Parker, Protective May Parker (Spider-Man), Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2020-04-24 11:08:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19172044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asofthesea/pseuds/asofthesea
Summary: Nothing ever seems to go Peter's way. He doesn't know why he expected him coming out to be any different.





	What I Really Am

**Author's Note:**

> For Pride Month.

He had not meant for it to go down like this, not at all.

If you asked Peter how he wanted to come out to his parents, he would have told you he planned on sitting them down for a meal and calmly explaining his feelings to them. They may have asked him a few questions, which he would have answered to the best of his ability. 

This is not how he wanted it to go down, not at all.

May had picked him up from school and barely said a word to him. She listened to the principal give him his punishment, one week out-of-school suspension for fighting. He listened as she called Tony and told him to meet them at home, soon. He had not said anything, for fear that she would yell at him.

When they arrived home, she sent him to his room. He was waiting for Tony to get home. He knew they wanted to go at this together, but he was scared of them teaming up on him. This was going to be bad enough as it is. They would force him to explain himself and he would have to tell them the horrible, ugly truth.

He hears Tony enter the house, but he doesn’t dare leave his room yet. He doesn’t want to make them any madder than they already are. He tries to listen as they talk, but they are talking too quietly for him to hear.

With nothing to distract himself, Peter lays down on his bed. He can do this. May and Tony will still love him, right? He’ll be fine. His worries are probably completely irrational.

He can’t help the small voice in the back of his head asking, ‘what if?’

What if things change? What if they don’t see him as the same kid they did before?

Before he can go too far down the rabbit hole, his door opens.

It is Tony, who looks very angry and like he is trying very hard to contain his anger. He says, “Come on out, we need to talk.”

Peter reluctantly gets up and follows Tony to the living room. He sits on the couch, with both May and Tony standing across from him.

May is the first one to speak.

“Peter, before we make any decisions about your punishment, we need to hear your side of the story. Since neither you or Flash said anything about what caused the fight, we have no idea. You need to tell us why, Peter.”

“Well, it started out like it usually does. Flash was just being annoying and trying to get to me. I was doing a really good job ignoring him until he said something that really upset me. I pushed him. He started throwing punches, then I was just trying to defend myself.”

Tony studies him as he asks, “What did Flash say that upset you so much Peter?”

Peter shrugs. He really doesn’t want to tell them. Not like this.

“Yeah I don’t think so, buddy,” Tony says, crossing his arms, “You need to tell us what happened.”

Peter sighs and says, “He called me a- a faggot. And I guess the reason that it bothered me so much is because it’s true.”

He looks down at his hands, not wanting to see the disappointment on their faces. Their silence is stifling. He should have just lied and said that Flash was just being particularly annoying, but now he has to deal with this, too.

His aunt breaks the silence first, “Peter, that’s not true.”

He lifts his head up and says, “It is. I like girls but I like boys, too, okay? I get that not everybody is okay with it, and if you guys aren’t okay with it then I guess that’s okay. Just pretend I never said anything. Can you just ground me and send me to my room?”

Tony closes the space between them in a few brisk steps and Peter thinks he is about to do as he asked. Instead, Tony crouches down to Peter’s eye level. 

He says, “Peter nothing is wrong with you. We are both okay with it, I promise. What Flash said about you was cruel, and he had no right to say that to you.”

May sits down beside Peter and rubs his back. She adds, “Tony’s right, Peter. We still love you.”

Peter doesn’t know why, but he starts crying. Maybe because he’s embarrassed, or maybe he’s so relieved that they accept him. It could be that he’s still hurt by what Flash said.

Tony wipes away his tears and says, “I’m going to kill that kid.”

Peter grabs his dad’s wrists and says, “It’s okay, Flash didn’t know. He was just trying to get under my skin.”

May says, “It doesn’t matter if he knew or not, Flash should not have been saying those things to you. We’re going to go in tomorrow and have a talk with your principal.”

“No!” Peter pleads, “Please, it will only make it worse. If Flash finds out that it’s true he’ll never leave me alone.”

Tony sighs and says, “We can’t just sit by and watch this, Peter.”

“Promise me,” Peter starts, “Promise me that you won’t go to the principal. I can handle it, I promise. It’s fine, but it will only get worse if you guys get involved. Please, promise me.”

Tony’s eyes flicker over to meet May’s gaze, but Peter keeps looking at Tony. He knows that Tony is more likely to give in to what he wants. He puts on his best puppy dog eyes and stares at his father.

“Peter, I can’t promise that,” Tony says.

Peter stands quickly and declares, “Then just leave me alone! I’ll deal with it myself!”

He jumps over the back of the couch and darts off to his room, ignoring the calls for him to ‘wait’ and ‘come back.’ As he slams the door to his room, he breaks down. Why don’t they get it? Adults getting involved has never made it better. What can they do that will make Flash stop?

He forces himself to calm down and listen to their conversation.

“God, May. What did I do?”

“You didn’t do anything, Tony. Peter is just going through a lot right now. He took it out on you. He thinks he can do this alone, but it is our job to show him that we can help him.” Yeah, right. Nothing they can do will help him. He’s all alone.

“I just, I hate seeing him this upset. I just want to do whatever it takes to stop him from feeling this way.”

“Sometimes all we can do is be there for him. Sometimes we can’t stop the bullies. Even if we could stop Flash, there’s always another mean kid. We just need to let him know that he can come to us.”

“Okay, you’re right. Should we go check on him, or give him a while to cool down?”

“He’ll come to us when he’s ready, we just need to be here for him when he is.”

Peter takes a deep breath as he makes his way to his bed. He flops down on it and stares at the ceiling. He really wishes this wasn’t how he told his parents about his sexuality. This sucks. An idea pops into Peter’s head on how he can fix this, but he decides to take a nap first. This day really took a lot out of him.

When Peter wakes up, he doesn’t necessarily feel better, he just feels calmer. 

He gets up and takes a shower, attempting to wash away today. Today was just a really crappy day, and he can’t wait for it to be over. He gets dressed and decides to bite the bullet. A quick glance at the clock lets him know that it should about be supper time, anyways.

Peter makes his way to the kitchen, seeing May and Tony getting supper ready. A distant part of himself is elated at the image of domesticity, but he can’t help but push that feeling aside for the moment. So many other emotions are vying to be brought to the front. Anger. Guilt. Embarrassment. He decides he needs to do this now, before he chickens out.

“Hey guys, um,” Peter starts and quickly loses his train of thought when they both turn to look at him with wide, sad eyes.

“What is it, sweetheart?” Aunt May asks.

Peter takes a deep breath, wringing his hands together, “Well, um, about what happened this afternoon. That was not really how I wanted things to go down, how I imagined it would happen. I was wondering if maybe we could pretend like I didn’t tell you anything.”

Tony speaks up and says, “Peter, we aren’t ashamed of you or whatever you’re thinking. I don’t think that we should just pretend like it didn’t happen.”

Peter sighs and says, “That’s not why. I want a do-over.”

“A do-over?” Aunt May asks.

“Yes. I didn’t want to tell you guys like that. I want a do-over. I’ve been thinking about it for a while now, and I know about how I want this to go.”

He can tell that they are considering it so he continues, “Please? It would mean so much to me if I could do this the right way.”

They share a look and Tony says, “I think we could do that.”

May adds, “Don’t think this doesn’t mean we won’t be talking about Flash later, though.”

Peter nods and smiles. He doesn’t want to talk about Flash, but he knows he can’t get out of it. He sets the table as they finish making supper. Once it is all on the table, they all sit and dish out their food.

Once they are settled Peter says, “May, Tony, I have something I need to tell you.”

“What is it, Pete?” Tony asks.

Peter takes a deep breath. He can do this. 

“I’m bisexual.”

Nobody says anything for a few moments. 

Tony breaks the silence, “If you don’t mind me asking, how long have you known?”

“Since the seventh grade.”

May asks, “Do you have a thing for Ned? I don’t care, I just wanna know.”

Peter laughs and says, “No, we are just friends. Plus, Ned’s totally straight.”

Just like that, an easy conversation starts. Peter can’t help but feel lucky. His coming out what about as worse as he had imagined it. However, his parents still loved him, and they helped him to rewrite his story. He doesn’t know what obstacles are coming next, but he knows he’s not alone.

**Author's Note:**

> If you guys could let me know what you thought that would be amazing! Thank you so much to everyone and I hope you have a wonderful pride month!!!


End file.
